KarmaCat
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2013
We spent the week before Thanksgiving in WDW, leaving to return home the Friday after Thanksgiving. Let me just say, if we'd been a family with a bad attitude or high-maintenance tastes, our trip could have been a (very expensive) DISASTER!!! But our trip ended up being wonderful anyway. Why? Because we were together as a family, at Disney, actively *choosing* to make our own happiness when life threw other things our way.
So... the challenges began at the airport. We were staying at Coronado Springs for the first time and were excited to see a short line for the bus at the Magical Express. However, we still waited close to an hour, standing at the front of the line, before we were allowed to board a bus. Then, once we were finally on the bus--you will think I'm making this up, but I really am not--it actually BROKE DOWN on the side of the interstate, and the bus wouldn't even start to give us air conditioning, so we sat there in the sauna-bus waiting for backup for around half an hour. Finally a new bus came, and we all got off, got our luggage transferred to the new bus, and finally got on our way to the resort. But... no worries! I was determined not to let it get us down.
Our room was ready at CS, and our Garden Grocer order was also ready to be delivered. Unfortunately, the wrong order was delivered to our room, but we were able to sort it out fairly quickly. Luckily, our bags were still there at the front desk and hadn't been delivered to anyone else yet. So we got the correct bags situated in our room, and then off we went to Disney Springs for lunch. We had lunch at Rainforest Cafe, visited Goofy's and the Lego store, let the kids make T-shirts at Design-a-Tee... It was a wonderful afternoon. We decided to have a food court dinner and an early bedtime because frankly, the extended Magical Express hassle had really worn us all out.
Then the next morning, I woke up sick as a dog!!! I'd been fighting a chest cold for a while, and it apparently had finally made its way into sinus infection territory. I had no voice, my sinuses were killing me... I was miserable. BUT, we had 8:00 reservations at BOG, so I just pulled myself together and out we went. I have to be honest; I felt HORRIBLE all day, but I did not complain once and rallied for the sake of the family. We got an early ride on the Mine Train (2nd train of the whole day), which my son LOVED, and we had an amazing day in the Magic Kingdom. I did not let a little sickness slow me down!!!
[By the way, I eventually ended up needing an antibiotic for a sinus infection later on on our trip, and I used MD Live to consult with a doctor online, and then they phone the prescription to Turner Drugs, a pharmacy there in Orlando, who delivered my prescription directly to Coronado Springs. The costs were billed to our room. It could not have been easier, and customer service from Turner Drugs was excellent. I whole-heartedly recommend them to anyone looking for a delivery pharmacy at WDW.]
Anyway, the next day was at Epcot... We had an awesome 8:00 breakfast at Garden Grill--which was amazing. I would recommend it to anyone hoping to avoid crowds getting into the park and then get an early ride on Soarin'. We were the very first ones into the theater and got to take the first ride of the day! Also, the breakfast at GG was *really* good, and the characters all visited our table twice and spent a lot of good quality time with us. It was so cool!
However, shortly after we were done with Soarin' and a quick ride over at Nemo, my son sadly got sick to his stomach, which is a NIGHTMARE when you're that deep in one of the parks and a bus ride away from the resort. My husband, who is totally freaked out by throwing up, earned a gold star by navigating the horror to get him back to the hotel (I will owe him for a LONG time, let me tell you) while I stayed at the park with our daughter.
While we were disappointed to be missing half of our family, I have to tell you, it was a rare and precious treat to be able to spend some special, unplanned together time with my daughter. We spent lots of time shopping and browsing the stores in World Showcase, which the boys NEVER would have put up with had we all been together, and we also used a number of snack credits getting fun treats throughout WS (my husband is usually very strict about sweet treats, so it was kind of a splurge for the two of us alone). I will always treasure that afternoon together with her! And we had fun finding some neat surprises to bring back to my son (like an international coin souvenir set and a Goofy ear hat) to cheer him up after spending the day napping and sick at the hotel.
I ended up cancelling our Tusker House reservations for the following day, which was a true disappointment--but then, amazingly, within five minutes of my confirming the cancellation, would you believe that a new TH time opened up for the one free day I had scheduled in our plans??? And it was at EXACTLY the same time our old reservation had been, within only five minutes of the original! I could not believe it!!! So I snagged it immediately, and our plans were back on track!
The next day, instead of getting up before dawn and marching off to the parks, in order to allow my son to recover from his illness (he was now feeling much better but was still quite tired), we spent all morning wandering the paths around Coronado Springs... We watched the turtles swimming in the water, saw water snakes, lizards, snails, a slug, many beautiful birds (including some ducks, who came right up to us and delighted the kids), squirrels, and even a small alligator floating in the lake! We smelled the flowers, lay in the hammocks, relaxed in the beach chairs by the quiet pool, did some pin trading around the resort... My kids said this was their favorite day of the entire trip. My son's illness forced us to slow down, and as a result, we ended up refocusing on each other and really began to appreciate being where we were instead of just going, going, going ALL THE TIME. It was truly a blessing in disguise.
Not wanting to go overboard with any activities but wanting to get out and do *something,* we went to Winter Summerland and played both mini-golf courses, which we had never done before. It was a lot of fun, and was really just the right speed for us. I'm glad we got to give it a try! And this is something else we probably wouldn't have done if the situation had been different. We had such a wonderful day!
Eventually, my son recovered, I got my antibiotic, and we ended our trip on an amazing note. We got to see the Osborne Lights for the last time, enjoyed the fireworks at Magic Kingdom, dined in the castle, ate our fair share of Mickey pretzels and ice cream bars, got custom Haunted Mansion ghost pictures made at Memento Mori, screamed our heads off on Test Track, wore out the water slide at the CS pool... it ended up being a beautiful trip. Disney really is a magical place--but the magic comes not only from outside, but from inside as well. Our trip could have been RUINED after those first couple of days with all the problems that kept happening, but instead, those things gave us perspective and gratitude, and reminded us that the important thing was not how many ADRs we had or how many Fast Passes we snagged; it was that we were there TOGETHER, as a family, making memories to last a lifetime. And for that reason, our trip was absolutely perfect.
So... the challenges began at the airport. We were staying at Coronado Springs for the first time and were excited to see a short line for the bus at the Magical Express. However, we still waited close to an hour, standing at the front of the line, before we were allowed to board a bus. Then, once we were finally on the bus--you will think I'm making this up, but I really am not--it actually BROKE DOWN on the side of the interstate, and the bus wouldn't even start to give us air conditioning, so we sat there in the sauna-bus waiting for backup for around half an hour. Finally a new bus came, and we all got off, got our luggage transferred to the new bus, and finally got on our way to the resort. But... no worries! I was determined not to let it get us down.
Our room was ready at CS, and our Garden Grocer order was also ready to be delivered. Unfortunately, the wrong order was delivered to our room, but we were able to sort it out fairly quickly. Luckily, our bags were still there at the front desk and hadn't been delivered to anyone else yet. So we got the correct bags situated in our room, and then off we went to Disney Springs for lunch. We had lunch at Rainforest Cafe, visited Goofy's and the Lego store, let the kids make T-shirts at Design-a-Tee... It was a wonderful afternoon. We decided to have a food court dinner and an early bedtime because frankly, the extended Magical Express hassle had really worn us all out.
Then the next morning, I woke up sick as a dog!!! I'd been fighting a chest cold for a while, and it apparently had finally made its way into sinus infection territory. I had no voice, my sinuses were killing me... I was miserable. BUT, we had 8:00 reservations at BOG, so I just pulled myself together and out we went. I have to be honest; I felt HORRIBLE all day, but I did not complain once and rallied for the sake of the family. We got an early ride on the Mine Train (2nd train of the whole day), which my son LOVED, and we had an amazing day in the Magic Kingdom. I did not let a little sickness slow me down!!!
[By the way, I eventually ended up needing an antibiotic for a sinus infection later on on our trip, and I used MD Live to consult with a doctor online, and then they phone the prescription to Turner Drugs, a pharmacy there in Orlando, who delivered my prescription directly to Coronado Springs. The costs were billed to our room. It could not have been easier, and customer service from Turner Drugs was excellent. I whole-heartedly recommend them to anyone looking for a delivery pharmacy at WDW.]
Anyway, the next day was at Epcot... We had an awesome 8:00 breakfast at Garden Grill--which was amazing. I would recommend it to anyone hoping to avoid crowds getting into the park and then get an early ride on Soarin'. We were the very first ones into the theater and got to take the first ride of the day! Also, the breakfast at GG was *really* good, and the characters all visited our table twice and spent a lot of good quality time with us. It was so cool!
However, shortly after we were done with Soarin' and a quick ride over at Nemo, my son sadly got sick to his stomach, which is a NIGHTMARE when you're that deep in one of the parks and a bus ride away from the resort. My husband, who is totally freaked out by throwing up, earned a gold star by navigating the horror to get him back to the hotel (I will owe him for a LONG time, let me tell you) while I stayed at the park with our daughter.
While we were disappointed to be missing half of our family, I have to tell you, it was a rare and precious treat to be able to spend some special, unplanned together time with my daughter. We spent lots of time shopping and browsing the stores in World Showcase, which the boys NEVER would have put up with had we all been together, and we also used a number of snack credits getting fun treats throughout WS (my husband is usually very strict about sweet treats, so it was kind of a splurge for the two of us alone). I will always treasure that afternoon together with her! And we had fun finding some neat surprises to bring back to my son (like an international coin souvenir set and a Goofy ear hat) to cheer him up after spending the day napping and sick at the hotel.
I ended up cancelling our Tusker House reservations for the following day, which was a true disappointment--but then, amazingly, within five minutes of my confirming the cancellation, would you believe that a new TH time opened up for the one free day I had scheduled in our plans??? And it was at EXACTLY the same time our old reservation had been, within only five minutes of the original! I could not believe it!!! So I snagged it immediately, and our plans were back on track!
The next day, instead of getting up before dawn and marching off to the parks, in order to allow my son to recover from his illness (he was now feeling much better but was still quite tired), we spent all morning wandering the paths around Coronado Springs... We watched the turtles swimming in the water, saw water snakes, lizards, snails, a slug, many beautiful birds (including some ducks, who came right up to us and delighted the kids), squirrels, and even a small alligator floating in the lake! We smelled the flowers, lay in the hammocks, relaxed in the beach chairs by the quiet pool, did some pin trading around the resort... My kids said this was their favorite day of the entire trip. My son's illness forced us to slow down, and as a result, we ended up refocusing on each other and really began to appreciate being where we were instead of just going, going, going ALL THE TIME. It was truly a blessing in disguise.
Not wanting to go overboard with any activities but wanting to get out and do *something,* we went to Winter Summerland and played both mini-golf courses, which we had never done before. It was a lot of fun, and was really just the right speed for us. I'm glad we got to give it a try! And this is something else we probably wouldn't have done if the situation had been different. We had such a wonderful day!
Eventually, my son recovered, I got my antibiotic, and we ended our trip on an amazing note. We got to see the Osborne Lights for the last time, enjoyed the fireworks at Magic Kingdom, dined in the castle, ate our fair share of Mickey pretzels and ice cream bars, got custom Haunted Mansion ghost pictures made at Memento Mori, screamed our heads off on Test Track, wore out the water slide at the CS pool... it ended up being a beautiful trip. Disney really is a magical place--but the magic comes not only from outside, but from inside as well. Our trip could have been RUINED after those first couple of days with all the problems that kept happening, but instead, those things gave us perspective and gratitude, and reminded us that the important thing was not how many ADRs we had or how many Fast Passes we snagged; it was that we were there TOGETHER, as a family, making memories to last a lifetime. And for that reason, our trip was absolutely perfect.
Last edited:
